Goodness is easier to recognize than to define. W. H. Auden More Quotes by W. H. Auden More Quotes From W. H. Auden All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him. W. H. Auden simple believe art The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition. W. H. Auden bored eye hands To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why? W. H. Auden men war death If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me. W. H. Auden affection heart love Hunger allows no choice. W. H. Auden hunger choices Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity. W. H. Auden who-we-are differences age As a rule, it was the pleasure-haters who became unjust. W. H. Auden unjust pleasure healing Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods. W. H. Auden running love relationship The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me. W. H. Auden mind love order The law cannot forgive, for the law has not been wronged, only broken; only persons can be wronged. The law can pardon, but it can only pardon what it has the power to punish. W. H. Auden forgiving broken law Water is the soul of the Earth. W. H. Auden soul earth water It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it. W. H. Auden money writing art A man is a form of life that dreams in order to act and acts in order to dream. W. H. Auden dream men order Acts of injustice done W. H. Auden rising done lying Be subtle, various, ornamental, clever, And do not listen to those critics ever Whose crude provincial gullets crave in books Plain cooking made still plainer by plain cooks. W. H. Auden cooking clever book Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible. W. H. Auden human-life communication life-is A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: “Whom do you write for?” The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author. W. H. Auden passion silly book I know nothing, except what everyone knows - if there when Grace dances, I should dance. W. H. Auden dancing grace should Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith. W. H. Auden friday christmas easter I just try to put the thing out and hope somebody will read it. Someone says: 'Whom do you write for?' I reply: 'Do you read me?' If they say 'Yes,' I say, 'Do you like it?' If they say 'No,' then I say, 'I don't write for you.' W. H. Auden you-like-it writing trying
